9 ms·
Not sure I’d risk this myself. However when I did chemistry at A level at school, with the intention of going into pharma for a bit, I did extract aspirin from
by setquk 8y ago
Not sure I’d risk this myself. However when I did chemistry at A level at school, with the intention of going into pharma for a bit, I did extract aspirin from willow bark. This is something you can do relatively easily and safely yourself. Disclaimer: if you kill yourself it wasn’t my fault.
Thanks to my wonderful chemistry teacher I got a couple of hours at Glaxo and run NMR on it to validate it. Was an amazing experience even if it was a bit worrying getting the train there with vials of white crystalline substance on me.
- ian0 8y agoQuick-link for those wondering how to do this (as I was): https://home-remedies.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-aspirin-from-willow-tree-0142525/ https://home-remedies.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-aspirin-fr...
- setquk 8y agoTo add, this wasn't the method I used. It was more "industrial". I don't want to describe it here as there are a number of problems with it. Firstly, the output is near pure which brings dosage problems. Secondly, the output isn't 100% pure and brings storage problems. Thirdly, you don't have an NMR spec handy. If you do I am impressed :)
- jk27277 8y agoNo, you didnt. You extracted salicylic acid, a precursor of aspirin.
- setquk 8y agoNo I had some acetic anhydride available to me as well (back before it was scheduled). It was the whole job.
- logfromblammo 8y agoAnd did your professor tell you a story about pipetting glacial acetic acid by mouth? I'm beginning to suspect that maybe it actually happened to someone else. Or maybe it never happened, and got invented from whole cloth to justify the purchase of thumbwheel pipette controllers.
- setquk 8y agoNo not a thing about that. I am intrigued. He made us do everything in the fume cupboard though because we nearly blew ourselves up trying to make picric acid from the Jolly Roger cookbook :)
- logfromblammo 8y agoAh. Perhaps it was a bona fide story. The prof was pipetting glacial acetic acid by mouth, and inadvertently exceeded the maximum recommended volume of the pipette in a single transfer. Later, the entire interior lining of his mouth and tongue peeled off (with no further ill effects). After that, he used rubber suction bulbs to pipette. And aren't you undergrads lucky we have the fancy thumbwheel/plunger pipette controllers in your labs now? Since I couldn't do it the easy way in an acetylsalicylic acid lab, I had to peel my mouth with the lactic acid from a big bag of Herr's salt and vinegar chips.
- astura 8y agoYou can derive asprin from salicylic acid very easily, I did it during undergrad chemistry 101.
- jk27277 8y agoDoing an esterfication and extracting something are still two different things. There is no aspirin tree, even if the pharmacological actions are the same.
- onetimemanytime 8y agoHeard about tea, and used boiled willow ends as rooting hormone (not sure if it worked any better or...) HOWEVER, one needs to be careful as dosage is not know when you mix stuff in your kitchen for human consumption. That scares me.
- entity345 8y agoJust to be clear: There is no aspirin in willow bark. Willow bark contains salicin which metabolizes into salicylic acid (which is still different from aspirin, ie. acetylsalicylic acid).
- ChristianBundy 8y ago> salicylic acid I could be wrong, but isn't that the main ingredient in Stridex? I used to have oily skin (before changing my diet) and I could've sworn that I used salicylic acid as a chemical exfoliant.
- RandomInteger4 8y agoYes. Also the active ingredient in Wart remover, though at higher concentrations (2% for stridex and 17% for wart remover). Good at melting skin I guess.
- entity345 8y agoWhich perhaps illustrates why it's not so good for your stomach and why, therefore, aspirin (same properties without stomach issues) was a breakthrough.